Last week’s library contest featured animal anagrams. Students were given five three-letter words that can also spell the names of animals if you re-arrange the letters. For example, the letters in the word flow can be re-arranged to spell wolf. The contest words were god, arm, tar, act, and pea. Every student who correctly spelled the animal anagrams was entered in a drawing for a wolf stuffed animal. The lucky winner is fifth grader Makayla. Can you figure out our animal anagrams?
We’re going to the zoo…
The new theme in Mrs. McCall’s room is zoo animals. The group’s weekly library visit began with the song “The Animals at the Zoo.” Next the children listened to the book Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr. Then they listed zoo animals. Storytime ended with a viewing of the funny zoo story 
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.
Kudos again for returning library books!
Four classes deserve recognition for demonstrating positive library behavior and it’s seconds all around! Mrs. Dillane’s Yellow Room friends and Mrs. Carlisle’s Green Room friends each filled a second book return chart with 100 stickers. Mrs Sullivan’s first graders finished their second 100-piece poster puzzle. Miss Mallon’s second graders 
earned 1,000 points for returning 200 books for the second time. Each class received small prizes for their achievement.
Chickadee season
Once again, Carl J. Lamb School students are participating in the Chickadee Award, Maine’s picture book award program for children in kindergarten through fourth grade. The award is given annually to one of ten picture books selected by a committee of teachers and librarians. To prepare for the program, our students first learn about book awards (such as the Caldecott Medal) and the chickadee (Maine’s state bird).
This week the first graders practiced information writing as they learned about chickadees. The students were asked to identify features of birds (wings, feather, bills, etc.). Then they checked their list against the features identified in the book It Could Still Be a Bird by Allan Fowler. Next the students viewed a digital story about black-capped chickadees. The lesson ended with the students labeling a diagram of a chickadee (bib, bill, cap, eye, feet, tail, wing) and writing one fact about Maine’s special bird as a caption.
Pets please
Mrs. McCall’s class continued their unit on families and pets this week. During the students’ visit to the library, the children sang the familiar song “Where is Thumbkin?” (about a family of fingers). The song was followed by two stories about pets, The Stray Dog by Marc Simont and Me and My Dragon by David Biedrzycki.